Emerald City dynasty? Seahawks’ key offseason decisions

The Seahawks' attempt at a potential dynasty began with a move so under the radar it wasn't reported until more than a year after it happened. That's when the Hawks extended Schneider just two years into his tenure as GM, after 7-9 seasons in both 2010 and 2011. The organization showed they were all-in with Schneider and his plan. The Hawks have since posted a 28-9 record, including the victory in Super Bowl XLVIII.

It was a mild surprise when the team shelled out $17 million in guaranteed money for Chancellor, whom many around the league regarded as a good but not elite player. But in the season following his extension, Chancellor showed just how valuable he was to the Seahawks’ vaunted “Legion of Boom” secondary, racking up 134 combined tackles and 3 interceptions in the regular season and adding two more picks in the postseason while being named a second team AP All-Pro. Boom indeed.

It’s not just the additions a team makes that determines its future success. It’s also the subtractions. In releasing fan favorite Red Bryant (above) along with former No. 1 receiver Sidney Rice — both of whom had inflated contract numbers — the Seahawks’ decision-makers showed they weren't afraid to make the tough decisions when determining who stays and who goes. They continued in that regard on March 12, releasing pass-rusher extraordinaire Chris Clemons.

After leading the team with 8.5 sacks in his first season with Seattle, bringing back Bennett was the Hawks’ No. 1 goal in free agency. Mission accomplished. Bennett was an absolute terror in opposing backfields as a rotational player in 2013, and even more will be expected in 2014, the first season of his four-year extension. The team was also able to bring back defensive tackle Tony McDaniel, who will help offset the loss of Bryant and free-agent departure Clinton McDonald in the defensive front.

After Seattle re-signed Bennett, fans knew there might not be enough money left to bring back Tate, the Seahawks' leading receiver in 2013. That concern proved to be well-founded when the Hawks let Tate walk after making what Tate called a “laughable” offer to retain his services. Tate wasn’t the only major departure via free agency, with tackle Breno Giacomini, guard Paul McQuistan and cornerbacks Brandon Browner and Walter Thurmond among the notable names to sign with other teams.

After being the team’s highest-paid player in 2013, starting tight end Miller could have been another salary-cap casualty, but he avoided that by agreeing to a restructured deal which reduced his cap number and will likely have him back in the fold in 2014 and 2015. After his release, Rice tested the free-agent market before re-signing with the club at a far smaller cap number in what amounted to a restructured one-year deal.

Carroll and Scheider — who already share a peculiarly strong bond to begin with — became even more of a package deal with the announcement of Carroll’s own contract extension. There wasn’t any real concern the 62-year-old would look to move on elsewhere, but keeping him in the fold further states the case for continuity in the organization and should help when recruiting players to Seattle.

Schneider got Seahawks owner Paul Allen to open up his wallet when extending Thomas, giving the four-year veteran $40.1 million — including more than $27 million guaranteed — over four years. Still, it could be argued the rangy safety is worth more than that to the Hawks defense. Thomas is arguably the best defensive back in the NFL, able to cover an astonishing amount of space in the passing game while also contributing as a run-stopper. He might even return punts in 2014.

Sherman became the third member of the Seahawks secondary to get his contract extension when he agreed to a four-year deal that made him the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL one day before this year’s draft. In three short years, Sherman rose from relative obscurity to shutdown corner and face of the franchise. With him, Chancellor and Thomas in the fold for the foreseeable future, the Seahawks D should continue to give opponents headaches with their physical, brash style of play.

Baldwin’s $13 million extension over three years doesn’t have much in common with the one signed by his former Stanford teammate Sherman, but it’s nonetheless significant. Baldwin’s no superstar, but his play for the Hawks over the last three seasons has been arguably as valuable as any offensive team member not named Marshawn Lynch, and his ultra-competitive style provides Carroll with a ready-made example for his “always compete” mantra. Extending a player like Baldwin says a lot about a franchise’s priorities.

It’s a bygone conclusion that Seattle will extend Wilson well before his contract expires at the end of the 2015 season. After all, how many chances to you get to secure a franchise quarterback? (I’m looking at you Charlie Whitehurst, Tarvaris Jackson and Matt Flynn.) Wilson’s been nothing short of spectacular since arriving in Seattle in 2012, and there’s little to no chance he plays elsewhere anytime soon. The question is, how big of a contract will he get? That answer will determine how flexible the Seahawks are able to be after next season.

If Wilson gets a megadeal, the odd man out could be the man who protects Wilson’s blind side. Okung has been a very good player since entering the league in 2010, but is he a franchise left tackle — and therefore deserving of a correspondingly huge contract? And with a mobile quarterback like Wilson, do the Hawks really need a “franchise left tackle” anyway? There isn’t an obvious replacement for Okung currently on the roster, but it wouldn’t be shocking to see him leave after next season in favor of a team that could offer significantly more money. Other players whose status may be up in the air include Lynch, defensive tackle Brandon Mebane and linebacker Bobby Wagner.

Almost immediately after the Seattle Seahawks hoisted the Lombardi Trophy following their 43-8 dismantling of the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII, Hawks players, coaches and executives got the word out: One championship isn’t enough.

With a young roster full of stars at key positions — many of them with contracts well below market value — Seattle seemed poised to make a run at becoming the NFL’s first dynasty since the New England Patriots of the early 2000s.

John Schneider (left) and Pete Carroll have been hard at work, trying to bring another Super Bowl title to Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

“I think we are in a very fortunate situation,” head coach Pete Carroll said the morning after the Super Bowl victory. “(General manager) John Schneider has done a extraordinary job of structuring this roster contractually and the vision of looking ahead so we can keep our guys together. One of the things that happens so often is teams have a big fallout after they win the Super Bowl, and we’re not in that situation.”

Schneider and Carroll’s blueprint for developing a Super Bowl winner began when they joined the team in 2010 — mining the draft for star power and depth, signing undrafted free agents who slid under the rest of the NFL’s radar, and acquiring key veterans to fill in the missing pieces en route to putting together the most talented and deepest roster in the league.

Not that there weren’t questions facing the franchise after its first championship.

For one thing, Schneider and Carroll had to decide which of the team’s bevy of unrestricted free agents to try to bring back. What would they do about players like defensive end Michael Bennett and wide receiver Golden Tate, both of whom seemed likely to cash in on their stellar play in Seattle’s Super Bowl run?

Scheider and Carroll couldn’t break the bank in retaining their own free agents — or making a run at talent outside their roster — if they wanted any chance of negotiating contract extensions with superstars like Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman, both of whom were entering the final seasons of their rookie deals.

Then there’s the NFL draft, which annually creates a lot of buzz but will take years to truly judge. So we’ll leave evaluating this year’s class out of the discussion for now.

So how have the Seahawks maintained their roster during this “championship off-season”? Click through the gallery above to see some of the recent moves the team made with an eye toward the future, as well as issues yet to be settled in the team’s drive to create a dynasty in the Emerald City.

Photo: Otto Greule Jr / Getty Images

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Are the Seattle Seahawks the NFL's next dynasty?

Most football fans would likely agree that there have been five major pro football dynasties in the Super Bowl era: the Green Bay Packers of the 1960s (though barely in the Super Bowl era), the Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s, the San Francisco 49ers of the 1980s, the Dallas Cowboys of the 1990s and the New England Patriots of the 2000s. Could the Seattle Seahawks be the NFL dynasty of the 2010s?

For a team to be in position to become a dynasty, a lot of elements have to come together at once. The planets have to align. And, for the purpose of this analysis, we're setting a couple of ground rules. First, to be a dynasty, a franchise must have won numerous Super Bowls within a certain window of time, and must have at least contended in the off-years. Second, a team must have won two Super Bowls in a row at some point during that stretch.

It's a very tall order. But the Seahawks appear poised to be the next possible dynasty -- or, if you will, poised to be poised. Here's a look at why the Seahawks seem to have collected all the ingredients to become the next NFL dynasty. Click on the right-arrow above for the next slide.

Example: Dallas. The '90s Cowboys had Jerry Jones (pictured), who rebooted the franchise after a long stretch of mediocre Dallas football. Over the course of a few years, he brought in a whole new staff, including Jimmy Johnson as head coach, and the Cowboys went from a 1-15 record in 1989 to Super Bowl champions in 1992. Dallas won three Super Bowls in four years in the early to mid-1990s with the trifecta of Jones, Johnson and quarterback Troy Aikman. Jones has been accused of interfering too much in team affairs, especially after Johnson's departure, but you can't deny Jones' efforts led to a Dallas dynasty.

Paul Allen bought the Seahawks in 1997 and in 1999 brought in Mike Holmgren as head coach. The Hawks went to the Super Bowl in 2005 but lost to the Steelers, as we all know, and then experienced a drop-off. When it was time for a change, Allen brought in Pete Carroll (after a year of Jim Mora) and GM John Schneider to turn things around, and it took just four years for Seattle to return to the Super Bowl, this time winning it against Peyton Manning and the Broncos on Feb. 2. Not afraid to make big changes or spend money on big managerial hires, Allen's leadership is key to the Seahawks' potential to be the next NFL dynasty.

Example: San Francisco. Longtime NFL assistant Bill Walsh (pictured on his players' shoulders) became head coach of the 49ers after just two seasons at Stanford. Credited with developing the West Coast offense, Walsh led his Niners to a Super Bowl championship in just two short years with Joe Montana under center. San Francisco won three Super Bowls during Walsh's 10-year tenure from 1981 through 1988, and repeated in 1989 under coach George Seifert with what was still, largely, Walsh's team.

Seattle's Pete Carroll is not your typical NFL head coach. After a couple of previously unsuccessful stints in the NFL, he found championship success in the college ranks as coach of the USC Trojans. When he joined the Seahawks in 2010, he brought with him the upbeat and inclusive coaching style that worked at USC and installed it in the Seattle locker room. Carroll changed the team culture and his players now say that his ability to make football fun again is a huge reason for the Seahawks' success. If Seattle continues to win, Carroll may be remembered in football lore as a revolutionary figure who steered coaching away from the drill-sergeant stereotype toward a more accepting and competition-driven philosophy.

Example: San Francisco. In the 1980s, 49ers team president Carmen Policy (pictured at right) was the king of talent identification and acquisition, finding such diamonds in the rough as Charles Haley, John Taylor and Michael Carter -- not to mention high-round draftees Joe Montana, Jerry Rice (pictured at left), Ronnie Lott and Roger Craig. Policy's ability to find great players and run a great team earned him 1994 Executive of the Year honors, and his Niners won four Super Bowl titles (1985, '89, '90 and '95) during his tenure.

Yes, Seattle GM John Schneider found a franchise quarterback in the third round of the 2012 draft, but Russell Wilson is not even the best example of Schneider's and Pete Carroll's impressive ability to find overlooked players with great potential and develop them into stars. Richard Sherman was a fifth-round draft pick, as was Kam Chancellor; Byron Maxwell was a sixth-rounder, and Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse were both undrafted -- to name a few. Carroll's "always compete" philosophy levels the playing field and gives less-heralded guys a chance to vie for key roles on the team, and it has paid off with great depth in many position groups -- particularly the "Legion of Boom" secondary -- but with largely unheard-of players.

Example: New England. When he won his first Super Bowl, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was just 24 years old, in his second year in the NFL. San Francisco's Joe Montana was 25, and Pittsburgh's Terry Bradshaw and Dallas' Troy Aikman were each 26. Since his starting debut in 2001, Brady has displayed an unmatched ability to mold New England's offense and his own play around the team's changing roster, evident once again this past season when Brady led the injury-riddled Patriots to a 12-4 record. In his 13 years as a starter (including 2008, when an injury kept him out of all but one game), Brady has a 148-43 record and three Super Bowl titles to his name, plus two additional Super Bowl appearances.

Russell Wilson won Seattle its first Vince Lombardi Trophy in his second pro season at the age of just 25. Like Brady, Wilson was not a high-round draft pick and busted the stereotype of what it takes to be a successful quarterback in the NFL. Like Brady, Wilson has the ability to make something out of nothing when his team needs him to make a play, and like Brady he has shown great ability to fight back from a deficit and win with breathtaking game-winning drives. Wilson will continue to get better, as he -- like Brady, Peyton Manning and today's other great quarterbacks -- also has the work ethic to not only study his opponents' weaknesses but also his own, always striving to improve his play on the gridiron.

Example: Pittsburgh. Sure, many fans may argue that the New England Patriots found success in the 2000s mainly through a high-octane offense, but people forget that in their Super Bowl-winning 2003 and 2004 seasons, for example, the Pats had the NFL's top- and second-ranked defenses, respectively, in points allowed. As the Seahawks reminded everyone on Feb. 2 when they destroyed the Broncos 43-8 in Super Bowl XLVIII, defense wins championships. One of the most vaunted squads in NFL history was the 1970s Steelers' "Steel Curtain" defense, including (depicted above from left to right) Dwight White, Ernie Holmes, "Mean" Joe Greene and L.C. Greenwood. Those defensively dominant Steelers won four Super Bowls in five years from 1974 to 1979.

The centerpiece of the Seahawks' 2013 championship season was the defense. Like Pittsburgh's "Steel Curtain," Seattle has its own nickname for a defensive unit, the "Legion of Boom" secondary. Headlined by cornerback Richard Sherman (pictured), the Seahawks' defensive backfield was without question the best in the NFL in 2013 and will likely be dominant for years to come. Overlooked by the national media were Seattle's suffocating defensive line and its diligent linebacking corps -- until the Super Bowl, that is, when all the pieces came together for the Hawks' most complete game of the year. Thanks to Pete Carroll's focus on strong defense, the Seahawks are in great shape for a least another year.

Example: New England. Sure, the 2000s Patriots had Tom Brady, Corey Dillon, Tedy Bruschi and Richard Seymour all on the same team, but a dynasty franchise has to get huge contributions from the not-as-well-known players too. Backup running back Kevin Faulk (pictured) was an example for New England, which used him mainly as a third-down back. Though his numbers never stood out, Faulk almost always came up with a clutch run or catch in key situations. He was a vital piece of the Patriots offense during the team's heyday.

The Seahawks have a lot of these players. Most of the world didn't know cornerback Richard Sherman until his infamous sideline interview after the NFC title game, but he came up with countless clutch plays in the 2013 season. Linebacker Malcolm Smith (pictured) was hardly known even in Seattle before he was named MVP of Super Bowl XLVIII. Other lesser-known players also were hugely integral, including receivers Jermaine Kearse and Doug Baldwin, linebackers Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright, and special-teamers Jeremy Lane and Heath Farwell. By the end of the season, it seemed any Seahawks player could be a starter on any other team. The ability of any player to become that week's star was key to Seattle's success in 2013, and is key to becoming an NFL dynasty.